Gripper End Effector with Force Feedback

Gripping clamps are available as optional attachments to the positioning arms of Xidex’s NanoBot® nanomanipulator. These “grippers” are able to grasp and hold micro- and nano-size objects, and there are two available size ranges for gripping. The Model GF-100 has gripper arms with an initial opening of 100 µm. The Model GF-30 has gripper arms with an initial opening of 30 µm.The clamp size opening can be controlled with nanometer precision. Because of the electrostatic actuation mechanism, there is no extraneous heating caused by the gripper arms. The gripper allows for measurement of the gripping force, greatly enhancing the efficiency and reliability of automated micro-handling and assembly. A LabVIEW™ based application for gripper actuation and force feedback display is installed on a laptop computer running Windows OS which is provided with the system. Users can also create custom LabVIEW applications and add these to the applications library provided with the NanoBot.